On a night when I received stunningly good news about deals that we accepted from Spanish and Italian publishers for my partial manuscript, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, the best news of all came while reading to my daughter before bed.
I recounted the event on Greetings Little One, the blog that I use to write to Clara daily:

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Tonight I began reading one of your favorite new books, little one.

Miss Spider’s New Car

I began reading the first line:

We need a car – just yours and…

And then I paused before reading the final word on the page, thinking I heard Mommy calling for me. In that empty space before the final word, you called out, “Mine!” which was the last word on the page.

Stunned, I turned the page and read the next line:

I mustn’t screech or growl or…

And then I paused again, this time on purpose to see what you would do. Immediately, you said, “Whine!”

Correct again.

Somehow in the course of two weeks, which is about how long we’ve been reading these books to you, you have managed to memorize the rhyming pairs of words on almost all the pages.

Mommy and I were stunned. We’re still stunned. We’ll probably remain stunned for quite some time.

And just as we managed to re-hinge our jaws and erase the looks of shock that were plastered across our faces, you proceeded to reproduce the same results with your other current favorite, Miss Spider’s Tea Party.

On nearly every page, you were able to fill in the last word.

Is this an amazing feat of memorization for our 21-month old baby?

We have nothing with which to compare, but we tend to think so, little one.